Grouper species identification

HAAAAAAAA · Mar 4, 2024

I had first thought of it has a greasy grouper, but when I looked at the picture more closely, it looked like something else, i do know that they change colours, but if incase this is a different grouper which grows to more than 2 feet, i won't be able to handle it, mostly because they need a really big tank and my biggest tank is occupied by my tessalata eel so no space, Here are some pictures, really active and he seemed to be yawning a lot when I first got him, but after a day of praziquantel, he has seemed to have stopped yawning

KrisReef · Mar 4, 2024

That looks like a Greasy grouper to me.

HAAAAAAAA · Mar 4, 2024

KrisReef said:
That looks like a Greasy grouper to me.

Thank you, it was labelled as red spotted grouper at the lfs so I was getting a bit confused since greasy groupers are also more pale in colour, but this might just be because of praziquantel and the stress in a smaller aquarium

ISpeakForTheSeas · Mar 4, 2024

HAAAAAAAA said:
it was labelled as red spotted grouper at the lfs so I was getting a bit confused since greasy groupers are also more pale in colour,

If Red-spotted Grouper is another name for the Orange-spotted Grouper, then it probably is that (at least, assuming your specimen is from Indian waters).

Through gene-sequencing (i.e. through DNA research) Orange-spotted Groupers (Epinephelus coioides) and Greasy Groupers (Epinephelus tauvina) from Indian waters have been shown to be the same species - E. coioides, with the specimens recognized as E. tauvina being the juvenile specimens.

Real E. tauvina specimens have been shown to only be found in the Western Pacific (basically everything east of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, etc. over to the eastern side of Japan, New Zealand, etc.).

So, your grouper is probably the Orange-spotted Grouper, but it also is probably morphologically indistinguishable from the Greasy Grouper (at least for now).

Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269918520_Identification_and_Reappraisal_of_Epinephelus_coioides_and_Epinephelus_tauvina_through_a_DNA_Barcoding_Approach_from_the_Andaman_waters

HAAAAAAAA · Mar 4, 2024

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
If Red-spotted Grouper is another name for the Orange-spotted Grouper, then it probably is that (at least, assuming your specimen is from Indian waters).

Through gene-sequencing (i.e. through DNA research) Orange-spotted Groupers (Epinephelus coioides) and Greasy Groupers (Epinephelus tauvina) from Indian waters have been shown to be the same species - E. coioides, with the specimens recognized as E. tauvina being the juvenile specimens.

Real E. tauvina specimens have been shown to only be found in the Western Pacific (basically everything east of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, etc. over to the eastern side of Japan, New Zealand, etc.).

So, your grouper is probably the Orange-spotted Grouper, but it also is probably morphologically indistinguishable from the Greasy Grouper (at least for now).

Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269918520_Identification_and_Reappraisal_of_Epinephelus_coioides_and_Epinephelus_tauvina_through_a_DNA_Barcoding_Approach_from_the_Andaman_waters

Thanks for the info, quite interesting, thought i do hope he gets that pale colour when grown, really love those Google pictures of greasy groupers Lol, and yes, it is from the Indian water's, though, i don't know from which region, unless he changes colour whilest growing, he does look like a e. coioides